Enterprise flies

On February 18, 1977, the first space shuttle orbiter prototype, the
Enterprise, was flight tested for two hours in “inert captive mode,”
attached to the top of a 747 jumbo jet. The flight was the first of five captive
flights in the nine-month-long Approach and Landing Test program (Feb-Nov 1977)
at the Dryden Flight Research Facility. The Enterprise had its first
free flight test on August 12, 1977, when the orbiter was released from the
carrier 747 in flight, and demonstrated that the shuttle could fly in the
atmosphere and land like an airplane, except without power-gliding flight. The
orbiter was originally to be known as Constitution (to honor the U.S.
Constitution's Bicentennial). However, a write-in campaign by fans of the TV
show Star Trek convinced the White House to name the vehicle
Enterprise.